Rizzo Walkoff Completes Yankee Sweep, Maybe Knocks Rays Out

This Jersey Mike finds both Jersey Mike's subs

and the Yankees' season thus far to be delicious.

The Tampa Bay Rays have been a pain in the Yankees' neck since they got good in 2008. If the Bronx Bombers want to win the World Series, they're going to have to eliminate the Rays as an American League Eastern Division threat -- among other things.

They may have done that for this season this week, and it's still only mid-June.

Luis Severino was supposed to start the game, but was sick -- apparently, not COVID, as he's been allowed to join the team on their roadtrip to Toronto, and Canada has stricter COVID protocols than America. So both teams were going to do a "bullpen game" last night. So anybody predicting a final score of 2-1, either way, was taking a gamble.

But that's what happened. Clarke Schmidt started for the Yankees, and went 3 innings, allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk. Ryan Weber was called up for this game -- apparently, just for this game -- and went 3 2/3rds, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and no walks. Ron Marinaccio went an inning and 1/3rd, perfect. And Michael King pitched a scoreless 9th.

But against 7 Rays pitchers, the Yankees had trouble scoring runs as well. They didn't get a baserunner until Aaron Judge drew a walk in the 4th inning, and fell behind 1-0 on a home run in the 5th. With 2 out in the 6th, well, you know the cliché: Walks can kill you. DJ LeMahieu drew one, Judge drew another, and Anthony Rizzo singled LeMahieu home.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, Rizzo struck again: Walkoff home run. Yankees 2, Rays 1. WP: King (4-1). No save. LP: Shawn Armstrong (0-1). That's 7 in a row, 14 of the last 15, and 47-16 on the season, a 121-win pace. That's insane. I love it.

The win puts the Yankees 12 games ahead of the Rays in the AL East. The Toronto Blue Jays lost last night, so they fell to 10 games back. The Magic Number for the Yankees to clinch is 90.

After the game, Severino was reinstated... and Weber was designated for assignment. It was like, "Thanks a lot, you may have earned yourself a World Series ring with less than 4 innings of work. Now, get outta here!"

So now, the Yankees go off to Toronto, with a chance to essentially end the AL East race this weekend. Tonight, Jordan Montgomery starts against Ross Stripling -- both of them sounding like the names of law firms.